They are all at it.
AMG Line - Merc
R Line - VW
ST Line - Ford
M-Sport - BMW
S-Line - Audi
R-Sport - Jaguar.
VX-Line - Vauxhall
etc, etc,
Usually a trim level with looks similar to the fast sports models.
And usually big alloys and sports suspension which is good/bad depending on your personal choice.

But still a world away from the heavy industries that would give you further education, a trade, earnings to buy a house, raise a family and a decent pension.
Unfortunately the UK is short of those high paid industries and our kids are set to be the first generation to be worse off than their parents.
Still some high end tech jobs and finance positions for the high achievers but I despair somewhat at what our current school levers face.
Lee

There's been many trials but Batteries and Super Capacitors have been the only real solutions that show promise.
And even those are light years away of being able to supply Gigawatts of capacity over many hours cost effectively.
Last week I was at one of the worlds leading electrical suppliers of renewable equipment in their Demo suite. Lots of things in the pipeline and their Virtual Reality design systems were amazing.
But even they admit they are a long way off any real breakthrough on cost effective large scale storage.
A shame the UK's geology doesn't lend itself to hydro or pumped storage hydro.

Battery Tech is key which is why there's billions being invested.
Renewables are so expensive to the grid because you must have backup plant. You can have as many windmills and solar as you like but if you have a 50GW maximum demand you have to have 50GW worth of generation available without renewables to cover off when it's dark and the wind is not blowing. During the beast from the east last year the grid peaked at over 50GW and there was zero solar and less than 1% wind at times.
That's the hidden cost of renewables.
Until we can store renewable energy cost effectively we are stuck with a very expensive way to generate as we have to pay for capacity to stand idle when renewables are on.
Battery tech may well eventually solve the EV problem and the generation problem. But we have no solution in sight yet.

I'm sure Amazon will open some more warehouses to employ people on minimum wage zero hour contracts.
That's how the Government covered off all the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost in Mining, Shipbuilding and Steel.
Lee

I've been involved with some studies on this topic.
Maximum demand is not the main cost and stumbling block for the UK. What is the biggest problem is the local infrastructure, the local 400V networks and in some areas the 11kV and down.
Most of our towns and housing estates have infrastructure designed and installed over the 60's/70's/80's. No one envisaged that every house would need an additional sustained 7.2kW capacity.

You have to think more Globally than the UK.
Yes, as always the UK will struggle to get proper EV infrastructure but other countries are way ahead.
China is going mad for EV. That's why JLR's sales have plummeted in China while BMW have actually increased their market share as they already have Hybrid/EV models onsale.
Even in the UK diesel sales have dropped 31% since 2017.
Throughout the world bans are coming in for diesel, some city based and some country based.
In the UK diesel will face a total ban in twenty years time. That's only a couple of model cycles for a motor manufacturers so the investment and design has to start soon.
It's possible now to create a diesel that produces close to zero NOx, but the technology to do that is expensive, hurts economy and requires significantly increased use of adblue. That's why the industry lobbied the EU to relax the NOx limits for WLTP.
As caravanners we are where we are and will have to get used to the fact the the car industry is changing, vehicles are getting lighter and what powers them will be different. Some of us are of an age where it wont really matter but the caravan industry is going to have to change too.

It's good that the UK base will stay but they have no choice than to announce investment to switch away from diesel.
The diesel market is dying quickly and has no future long term so it's adapt or die.
VAG, BMW and Merc have already announced committed Hybrid/EV programs.

The 40
The 40k oil change on the DQ250 is critical. The clutch lubrication, cooling and all the hydraulic controls use the same oil circuit and the same oil.
Over time debris from clutch wear contaminates the oil. Either the filters get blocked and you can get pressure issues which can cause catastrophic failure or individual hydraulic circuits can be partially or fully blocked causing spurious operation.
Most DQ250 issues are the result of the 40k oil change not being done or not being done correctly. Problems at 50k are therefore a little suspicious.

If it's a 1.6 diesel it will be the DQ200 7 speed dry clutch which is "The problem child"
If it's the 2.0 diesel and pre2019 it will be the DQ250 6 speed wet clutch. This has the reputation as being the most reliable and robust DSG box. If he's had problems with this he's been very unlucky. That's assuming had it's oil change at 40k miles. Although the down shifts on this box can at times be less than smooth the upshifts should be nearly undetectable.

Dual Clutch transmissions were developed for efficiency at a time when 5 speed slush boxes were the norm. Dual clutch was massively more efficient.
Ford's Powershift was actually a third party design from Getrag. Ford had major issues around the world with reliability and customer complaints. There's been little real development from Ford or Getrag and Ford are now using their own conventional auto.
Conventional Auto's can now match the efficiency of DCT's but again they are not all great. For example ZF's 8 speed longitudinal box is sublime and reliable but their 9 speed transverse box is not great and it's been dogged with early issues.
We also have to consider that the new generation of conventional autos, the 8, 9 and even 10 speed boxes only really use the torque converter for pull away. The rest of the time the box will be locked up so you are then using clutches and even dual mass flywheels on some models.
The days of a true slushbox are long gone.
So pro's and con's with every technology and excellent to poor in every technology. Also depends what and how you drive.
There's never a one size fits all.

The map for drive is adaptive so if you drive a little more briskly or tow it should adjust to your driving style.
Sometimes in such situations I just give a quick pull on the downshift paddle prior to accelerating.

I think what you are finding is the current limitations of single turbo technology on a SCR Diesel.
There's a lot of single turbo 2.0D's that can push out around the 200PS mark now but having a turbo big enough to to flow that much air at high boost does compromise response at low rpm especially when you also have DPF and SCR in the exhaust flow.
At full throttle at low rpm these engines can still produce maximum torque but it's more the initial pickup and throttle response at low rpm that suffers against twin or smaller turbo installations.
Of course a torque converter would help this situation.
DSG does rely on autohold and hill hold to prevent roll back/forward as the clutches will not engage to bite point until the brake is nearly released.
It does take some getting used to as it's different to and conventional auto and manual. I used to left foot brake in such situations but now it's second nature for me to be off the brake and on the power quicker even if it's just to start the creep.

Can't get much more different there.
The A3 1.4TSI will have a transverse DQ200 7 speed dry clutch box (Almost certainly built by Skoda)
The A6 will have a longitudinal DL382 7 speed wet clutch box.
There's no doubt the DQ200 works better the lighter the vehicle and with smaller TSi units that are smooth and can rev.
I've never driven a CVT that I like and the Multitronic was a particularly poor one.
Also interesting that Audi call a number of different conventional Automatics "Tiptronic". If you buy a "Tiptronic" you may get a 5, 6 or 8 speed box made by Audi, Aisin or ZF. Again when people say "Tiptronic's" are great you have to view that in context.
For dual clutch Audi use the S-Tronic name instead of DSG and have recently started to use Porsche's PDK moniker on some models but the actual mechanicals remain the same.
Some years back the S-Tronic in the A1/A3 was more than double the price of the DSG option in the Fabia although they were the same gearbox made in the same factory with the same part numbers. Vorsprung Durch Marketing!
Lee